The Nanette Syllabus ​ ​

Introduction: The special, Nanette, created by and starring Hannah Gadsby, has inspired conversation across ​ ​ ​ social media about a variety of topics - from the harm of being a gay teenager in a country where it’s illegal to be gay to the myth of the male genius, sexual and gender violence, and the #MeToo movement. Designed in the spirit of other publicly-created curated syllabuses, such as #Charlestonsyllabus and #PulseOrlandoSyllabus, this syllabus is ​ ​ ​ ​ designed to provide resources for educators designing units and those who wish to learn more about the topics Gadsby raises in her special.

Structure: The first section of the syllabus is general information. The second section is organized chronologically ​ with various topics presented in the order in which Gadsby brings them up. As she returns to and touches on different topics, you may find yourself returning to earlier spots in the syllabus. While Gadsby herself may define terms differently, this is a helpful overview of terms of acronyms related to the LGBTQIA community. ​ ​

Contributions: This is an open source syllabus. You are welcome to post any additions you feel would help a viewer ​ but we ask that you do not delete any resources without checking with the syllabus creators, Jennifer Binis and Dr. ​ ​ ​ Stephanie Brown. When possible, please link to the author’s social media feed as a way to provide a reader more ​ context about the author’s work and as a way to ensure we’re accurately attributing sources. Finally, sub-sections are organized in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name. Please add any new entries in the corresponding spot in the list.

Section 1: Background Information and General Resources

U.S. Reviews of and Commentaries on Nanette Netflix Special (all from June and July, 2018) ​ ● The Comedian Forcing Standup to Confront the #MeToo Era (New Yorker, Moira Donegan) ​ ​ ​ ● Nanette Is a Radical, Transformative Work of (The Atlantic, Sophie Gilbert) ​ ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby's 'Nanette' Is A Scorching Piece On Comedy And Trauma (NPR, Linda Holmes) ​ ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby Refuses To Make Lesbianism The Butt Of The Joke (Buzzfeed, Shannon Keating) ​ ​ ​ ● 'Required Viewing' Gets Thrown Around a Lot. Hannah Gadsby's Nanette Transcends the Hyperbole. (Esquire, ​ Justin Kirkland) ​ ● The Transformative Comedy of Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette”: An Autostraddle Roundtable (Autostraddle, A.E. ​ ​ Osworth) ​ ● Why Hannah Gadsby’s searing comedy special Nanette has upended comedy for good (Vox, Aja Romano) ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby’s First Netflix Comedy Special Is About Why She’s Quitting Comedy (Slate, Rachel Writhers) ​ ​ ​

Review from Nanette’s run at Soho Theater in NYC ​ ​ ● Introducing A Major New voice in Comedy (Who Also Attacks Comedy) (The New York Times, Jason Zinoman, ​ ​ ​ March 2018)

UK Reviews of Nanette at Edinburgh Fringe Festival (all from August, 2017) ​ ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (The List, Brian Donaldson) ​ ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette is a devastating and furious farewell (The Telegraph, Rupert Hawksley) ​ ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (Time Out , Rose Johnstone) ​ ​ ​ ● Hannah Gadsby Review - Electrifying Farewell to Standup (, Brian Logan) ​ ​ ​

Hannah Gadsby Interviews about Nanette ​ ● The Comedian’s Comedian Podcast Live at Melbourne Comedy Festival (April 2017) ​ ● 7.30 Interview on ABC News (Australia) (Sept 2017) ​ ● BUILD (June 2018) ​ ● Hannah Gadsby Decided to Quit Comedy, and Then Her Career Blew Up (Vulture, Jackson McHenry, June ​ ​ ​ 2018) ● The New Yorker Radio Hour (June 2018) ​ ● Late Night With Seth Meyers (June 2018) ​ ● Nanette’s Hannah Gadsby Is Serious About Quitting Comedy (Vanity Fair, Erika Jarvis, July 2018) ​ ​ ​

Gender and Comedy ● Gender and Comedy: Special Issue of Feminist Media Histories (2017) ​ ● Living a Feminist Life (includes discussion of the “Feminist Killjoy” and gendered laughter), Sara Ahmed (2017) ​ ​ ​ ​ ● Last Laughs: Perspectives on Women and Comedy, Regina Barreca (1988) ​ ​ ​ ● They Used To Call Me Snow White…But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use Of Humor, Regina Barreca (1991) ​ ​ ​ ​ ● The Laugh of the Medusa Hélène Cixous (1976) ​ ​ ● Look Who's Laughing: Gender and Comedy Gail Finney, editor (1994) ​ ​ ● Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender, and Cultural Critique Joanne Gilbert (2004) ​ ● Women and Laughter Frances Gray (1994) ​ ● (Un) funny Women: TV Comedy Audiences and the Gendering of Humour Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore (2010) ​ ​ ● All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents Rebecca Krefting (2014) ​ ​ ● Pretty/funny: Women Comedians and Body Politics, Linda Mizejewski (2014) ​ ● The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter Kathleen Rowe (1995) ​

Gender Theory ● Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Judith Butler (1990) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ○ It’s Judith Butler’s World, The Cut, Molly Fischer (2016) ​ ​ ​ (for a quick overview of Judith Butler’s influence on gender theory)

Theories of Humor and Stand-Up Comedy ● Comedy Has Issues: Critical Inquiry (2017) ​ ● Rabelais and his World, Mikhail Bakhtin (1984) ​ ​ ​ ● Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic Henri Bergson (1900) ​ ● Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour, Michael Billig (2005) ​ ​ ​ ● A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-Up Comedy, Ian Brodie (2014) ​ ​ ​ ● Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-up Comedy, Oliver Double (2014) ​ ● Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious Sigmund Freud (1905) ​ ​ ● Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour Sam Friedman (2014) ​ ​ ● The Idea of Comedy: History, Theory, Critique, Jan Hokenson (2006) ​ ● Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke, Giselinde Kuipers (2015) ​ ● Standing Up, Speaking Out: Stand-up Comedy and the Rhetoric of Social Change, Matthew R. Meier and ​ Casey R. Schmitt, editors (2016) ● Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation, Lawrence Mintz (1985) ​

Section 2: Topics

On Masculine-Presenting Women ● Femme Histories Roundtable – Part I, Notches (moderated by Lauren Gutterman, 2017) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ● A Dispatch From the Shifting, Porous Border Between Butch and Trans (Evan Urquhart, 2015) ​ ​ ​

Tasmania ● Tasmanian Government apologises for criminalisation of gay sexual acts (ABC News AU, April 2017) ​ ● South Australia's Potato History (Government of Australia, November 2017) ​ ● What You Need to Know About LGBT Rights around the World (World Economic Forum, March 2017) ​

On Homosexuality as a “Choice” ● "You Can Tell Just by Looking": And 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People, Beacon Press (2013) ​ ​ ​ ● Background on Queer Theory (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, May 2018) ​ ​ ​ ● Gender and Sexual Identity (Teaching Tolerance) ​ ​ ​ ● Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire, Lisa M. Diamond (2009) ​ ● Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance, Janet Jakobsen, Ann Pellegrini (2013) ​ ● The Straight Line: How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality, Tom Waidzunas (2015) ​ ● The Tolerance Trap, Suzanna Danuta Walters (2014) ​ ● Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men, Jane Ward (2015) ​

Mardis Gras ● History of the Gay and Mardis Gras (Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras) ​ ​ ​

The Pride Flag ● The History of the Rainbow Flag (Kelly Grovier, June 2016) ​ ● The History And Meaning Of The Rainbow Pride Flag (Curtis M. Wong, June 2018) ​ ​ ​

Violence Against the LGBTQIA Community ● The History and Impact of Anti-LGBT Slurs Anti-Defamation League, 2018 ​ ​ ​ ● Violence Against the Transgender Community in 2018, Human Rights Campaign, 2018 ​ ​ ​ ● Gay-bashing: Violence and aggression against gay men and . Peter Nardi, Ralph Bolton (1991) ​ ● The Fa-Word: An Insulting Word in the Spotlight Linton Weeks (2011) ​

Bill Cosby

Self-Deprecating Humor ● Self-Deprecatory Humor and the Female Comic Danielle Russell (2002) ​

History of Pink and Blue for Babies ● When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?, Jeanne Maglaty, Smithsonian (2011) ​ ​ ​

Differences Between Men and Women ● Not From Venus, Not From Mars: What We Believe About Gender and Why It’s Often Wrong (Annie Murphy ​ Paul, 2017)

What To Do If You Accidentally Misgender Someone ● From The Q Center ​ ● From The Toast ​

Rape Jokes ● That’s Not Funny! Cultural Capital and Comedic Critique In Media Res, Stephanie Brown (2016) ​ ● Standing Up against the Rape Joke: Irony and Its Vicissitudes Lara Cox (2015) ​ ● Comedian Cameron Esposito tackles assault in "Rape Jokes" PBS Newshour (2018) ​ ● Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture Roxane Gay (2018) ​ ● Daniel Tosh and Rape Jokes: Still Not Funny Salon, Roxane Gay (2012) ​ ​ ● The Playful is Political: The Metapragmatics of Internet Rape-Joke Arguments Elise Kramer (2011) ​ ​ ​ ● Laughing It Off: What Happens When Women Tell Rape Jokes? Bitch Magazine, Katherine Leyton (2013) ​ ​ ​ ● Rape Joke The Awl, Patricia Lockwood (2013) ​ ​ ● Debating Rape Jokes vs. Rape Culture: Framing and Counter-Framing Misogynistic Comedy Raúl Pérez and ​ ​ ​ Viveca S. Greene (2016) ● If Rape Jokes Are Finally Funny, It’s Because They’re Targeting Rape Culture The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit, ​ ​ ​ (2015) ● How To Make a Rape Joke Jezebel, Lindy West (2012) ​ ● When We Laugh at Rape Jokes About Black Girls, We’re Part of the Problem The Daily Dot, Audra Williams, ​ ​ ​ ​ (2015) ● How Rape Jokes Sound Inside Queer Bodies Autostraddle, Audrey White (2016) ​ ​ ​

Art History ● Hannah Gadsby’s YouTube Channel on Art History “Renaissance Woman” ​

Women’s Anger ● Most Women You Know Are Angry — and That’s All Right, Teen Vogue, Laurie Penny (2018) ​ ​ ​ ● Summer of Rage, The Cut, Rebecca Traister (2018) ​ ​ ​ ● A Woman’s Fury Holds a Lifetimes of Wisdom, Tracie Ellis Ross, 2018 ​

Picasso

Understanding White Male Privilege ● Against Meritocracy: Culture, Power and Myths of Mobility, Jo Littler (2018) ​